Most old video games aren’t worth much money; you can buy yourself a pretty decent collection of games from the 80s with a few bucks and a trip to the flea market. But there are a select few games that are so rare, collectors are willing to pay hundreds or even thousands of dollars for the chance to put them in a display case and never play them. So keep an eye out the next time you clean up your basement, because you might just strike gold.

10. Pepsi Invaders

Pepsi Invaders sounds like the name of one of Pepsi’s many failed product lines, but it’s actually a game for the Atari 2600. Commissioned by Coca-Cola for their 1983 sales convention, the game is little more than Space Invaders with the aliens replaced by the letters that spell out Pepsi. Never intended for commercial release, only the 125 attendees of the convention received a copy. The number of cartridges that survive to this day is unknown, but the most recent one to surface was snapped up on eBay for 2125 dollars in early 2010.

9. Ultima: Escape from Mt. Drash

Escape from Mt. Drash is a game for the VIC-20, a very primitive computer from the early 80s. An obscure game for an obscure machine, only 13 copies of the 3000 that were manufactured are confirmed to be in existence today. When it first came out the game was a commercial disaster, and there are rumors that one retailer even dumped its unsold copies off a cliff. But today the game is worth around 2500 dollars to serious collectors, no doubt making the guy who ordered the cliff toss feel like an idiot.

8. Mr. Boston

Mr. Boston, a promotional game given out by the now defunct liquor company of the same name, is a game for the Vectrex, another machine that will be unfamiliar to anyone who isn’t a huge nerd. Mr. Boston is just a slightly edited version of another Vectrex game called Clean Sweep, which in turn is a knockoff of Pac-Man, which makes Mr. Boston the least creative video game ever made. With only four copies known to exist, the highly unoriginal Mr. Boston is worth about 3000 dollars.

7. Air Raid

One of the rarest Atari 2600 games, Air Raid was the only product of Men-A-Vision, who presumably shut down when they realised how bad their name was. Released in the 2600’s heyday as a lazy attempt to cash in on its success, few copies were made before Air Raid faded into obscurity. With only 13 cartridges known to exist, it’s worth about 3000 dollars. But what’s really impressive is that one copy, combined with the only known original box, recently sold for a staggering $31,600. That’s not a typo; somebody paid more than the cost of a new car for a cardboard sleeve. That will teach anyone who threw away game boxes when they were a kid.

6. Atlantis II

Another Atari 2600 game, Atlantis II wasn’t even commercially available. The original Atlantis was popular, and its creators held a contest to win a trip to Bermuda: whoever sent them a photo of the highest score won. But so many people got a perfect score that they had to break the tie with a more difficult sequel, sent only to those who had mastered the first game. Compounding its rarity is the fact that the game cart looks exactly the same as the worthless original, making Atlantis II even harder to find. So if you ever see what looks like a copy of Atlantis at a garage sale, go ahead and fork out a couple of bucks; it could actually be worth 6000 dollars.

5. Ultimate II

Ultimate 11 is a soccer game for the Neo Geo, an obscure console from the early 90s. The Neo Geo attracted a small but very dedicated group of fans, and there are quite a few serious collectors out there. This, combined with the fact that a lot of Neo Geo games were made in limited numbers, makes several of them highly coveted. Ultimate 11 is the second most valuable Neo Geo game; each of its 10 copies is worth about 10,000 dollars.

4. Kizuna Encounter

That leaves Kizuna Encounter as the most valuable Neo Geo game, at a cost of up to 13,000 dollars. It’s believed that only 15 copies of the English version were made, although the Japanese version is both identical and common, making it accessible to casual collectors. English copies are for the richest and most obsessive; in late 2009 somebody paid a mind-blowing 55,000 dollars for both Kizuna Encounter and Ultimate 11. The buyer said he’d never consider selling them for any price, so you’ll have to put aside your dreams and just start saving for a house instead.

3. Stadium Events

Our final three games are all for the original Nintendo, and they each have a unique story behind them. Stadium Events was made by a company called Bandai, and it made use of their “Family Fun Fitness Mat,” a soft plastic controller that players would run and jump on to make their track athlete move. Nintendo bought the rights to the game and the mat, rebranded them, and, confusing themselves for a totalitarian government, ordered the originals to be pulled from shelves and destroyed.

But 200 copies were sold before Nintendo’s death squads could track them down, although only 20, at most, are believed to exist today. One copy recently sold for 13,105 dollars, the box alone can fetch 10,000 dollars, and a sealed copy, sold in February of 2010, went for 41,300 dollars. To put that into perspective, that’s the cost of about 600 Xbox 360 games. Or, you know, a couple of cars. Meanwhile, the rebranded game, World Class Track Meet, is worth 10 bucks at most.

2. Nintendo Campus Challenge

In the early 90s, Nintendo held a series of competitions across the United States. One of these was the Campus Challenge, where Nintendo representatives visited 58 colleges in 1991. Players would try to get the highest score on a special cartridge; the challenge was a mix of three different games, lasting just six minutes in total. The winner at every college got a free trip to Disney World, where they played in a championship.

Again showing their love of needless destruction, Nintendo ordered all cartridges eliminated once the event was complete. But one employee hung onto his copy, eventually selling it at a garage sale in 2006 for 1000 dollars. In July of 2009 it sold on eBay for $14,000, and three months later it was put on auction again, this time bringing in $20,100. It’s probably off the market for good now, although maybe another cartridge is floating around in some Nintendo employee’s basement. We bet the people who destroyed their copies feel pretty silly. Or indescribably angry, one of the two.

1. Nintendo World Championships

The holy grail of video games, Nintendo World Championships is very similar to its college counterpart. This was a competition that toured 30 US cities in 1990; there were three age categories, and the winners in every city were taken to Universal Studios Hollywood. The champions of each age group got 10,000 dollars, a new car, a 40 inch TV and a gold painted Mario trophy; not a bad haul for mastering six and a half minutes of three different games.

116 cartridges were made for the competition: 96 grey and 20 gold. The grey ones are worth a “mere” 6000 dollars at most, but it’s the gold copies that attract the truly serious collectors. They’ve gone for as much as $21,000, and are generally considered to be the most sought after and treasured video games on the planet. So if Nintendo ever does another one of these Championships, take part and grab everything you can!

No matter where you go in the world, vehicles play a major role in almost every aspect of our lives. Vehicle ownership is seen by most as an essential part of existence in the modern world. Whether for pleasure or economic necessity, just about all of us will want or need to own a vehicle at some point. Is it any wonder then that around the world, people have taken their vehicles and made them into works of art? What better way to show your love and appreciation for your vehicle than decorating it with love and care? Here is my top 10 customized vehicles from around the world:

10. Dekotora (Japan)

Long thought of as a homogenous culture of cubicle drones, the Japanese can actually be just as creative and weird as anyone. Dekotora (an abbreviation of “decoration truck”) is a perfect example of how individualistic the Japanese can be. Built and owned by independent truckers, dekotora are regular trucks modified to look like the front of a Las Vegas casino. Except not so boring. A tangle of lights, decals, and massive chrome fixtures, these trucks light up the Japanese highways and rest stops as their owners gather to show off their designs. No two trucks are the same and owners take pride in making their trucks as outlandish as possible. Best of all, these trucks are actually used to transport goods.

9. Tourist Buses (Thailand)

Like dekotora in Japan, Thai tourist buses are riots of color and design. Custom painted by professionals who devote their lives to the art, these buses cruise around Thailand decorated with millions of different designs and images. From Disney characters to Japanese anime scenes, nothing is too outlandish or colorful to be masterfully rendered on the side of a bus. In fact, the custom painted buses are so widespread that the only kind of bus that would stand out on the streets of Bangkok is one with a regular paint job. In the tourist bus industry, garish colors and giant cartoon characters are the norm. Say what you want about these buses, but they sure beat getting into some crappy old grey Greyhound.

8. Choppers (U.S.A.)

At the end of World War 2, millions of returning GI’s found themselves back home with a thirst for excitement that postwar life couldn’t satisfy. Many of them purchased motorcycles to enjoy the speed and freedom of the open road, but found the factory versions bulky and full of unnecessary parts. Putting the skills Uncle Sam had taught them to peaceful use, they modified and “chopped” their bikes to make them leaner and faster. Over the next twenty years, the art developed and a huge subculture was born. Although choppers largely faded from the public eye over the years, they saw a resurgence in the 2000’s with shows like American Chopper and brands like West Coast Choppers marketing the customized bikes to a new generation. Highly modified, dangerous and loud; perhaps no other custom vehicle better symbolizes the U.S.A. Which is lucky because that’s the only country in the world where you can legally drive one.

7. Itasha (Japan)

Let’s say you finally have enough money and power to buy that Italian sports car you’ve always dreamed of. A masterpiece of automotive engineering and raw power, it looks just as cool as it feels. Obviously, the first thing you’re going to do is run out and blow a whole bunch more money to have a sexy cartoon character painted on it, right? Strange as it may seem, for a group of car enthusiasts in Japan, that’s exactly what they do. Known as itasha (which means “pain car”- “pain” for “painfully embarrassing” or “painful on the wallet” – really) these cars are primarily owned, operated, and shown off by guys whose love for performance vehicles is matched only by their desire to make love to a cartoon. Although the itasha are starting to be seen in actual races and sponsored by actual companies, it’s still largely a labor of love. For the men who devote a sizable chunk of their pay checks to letting the world know just how much they love that cartoon schoolgirl with the pink hair, no amount is too much.

6. Lowriders (U.S.A.)

Although they’ve come to be associated with West Coast hip hop culture in recent years, lowriders have always been an integral part of Chicano culture. First built by Mexican Americans as far back as the 30s, lowriders and the culture around them developed and flourished during the postwar boom. Like the ex-soldiers who cut up their choppers, lowrider enthusiasts heavily modified their cars to ride as low as possible. After first using sandbags and cinder blocks, they moved on to actually cutting and shortening their cars. The goal was to be as “low and slow” as possible. One of the most famous lowrider modifications, hydraulics, was actually done as a response to a punitive law enacted by the state of California. Not pleased to have a bunch of what they saw as undesirables driving low and slow through their neighbourhoods, the state made it illegal to have any part of a car lower than its rims. To get around the law, one enterprising customizer took some pumps from an old B-52 bomber and invented a system where he could raise or lower his car depending on whether there were any cops around.

5. Mod Scooters (U.K.)

The Swinging Sixties may have produced a lot of great music, but at its heart, it was all about style. From the James Bond dinner jackets to the Emma Peel cat suits, the secret mission in 1960’s London was to look as cool as humanly possible, and to spare no expense doing it. One of the more popular subcultures of the time, the mods, expressed their undying love of fashion in their motor scooters. Although they were largely working class kids, mods were influenced by Italian culture and fashion and loved the cheap, sleek Vespa and Lambretta scooters. Once they got them, they heavily modified their exteriors- especially the mirrors and lights. Not content to limit themselves to just two mirrors or one light, some Mods crammed as many rear-view mirrors and headlights as they could on their scooters. Never before or since in the history of motor vehicles has being safe been so cool.

4. Jingle Trucks (Central Asia)

Though the name may sound silly (and maybe even a little offensive) jingle trucks are nothing to laugh at. These heavily adorned commercial vehicles are common throughout Central Asia, but the most elaborate are found in Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan. Covered in colorful paintings of houses, animals, vehicles, and pastoral landscapes, the jingle trucks are amazing to look at. Despite a common look, each truck is unique and is meant to be a reflection of the owner’s tastes and personality. One image common to most trucks is a human eye, meant to ward off evil spirits. But what sets the jingle trucks apart from other custom vehicles (and gives them their name) is of course the jingling. To get the signature sound, jingle trucks’ bumpers are decorated with long chains and charms hanging like curtains. In the harsh Afghan wind, these chain curtains act as wind chimes, letting everyone know a jingle truck is approaching. That’s if they haven’t yet see the giant painted eye staring at them.

3. Jeepneys (Philippines)

Originally built on the husks of surplus and worn out U.S. Army jeeps, jeepneys are a great example of how one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. When the U.S. army withdrew from the Philippines after World War 2, they sold or gave hundreds of their surplus jeeps to the locals. Happy to have a vehicle, but not so happy to have one designed for transporting soldiers, the Filipinos stripped the jeeps, extended the cabs, added roofs, and painted over the boring army green with all kinds of bright colors. The resulting vehicles were way more fun to look at and served a vital role in re-establishing public transportation in a country still trying to rebuild after years of occupation. They became a part of the culture and still exist today, although they aren’t built from old army jeeps anymore. Some manufacturers have even started to build “e-jeepneys,” jeepneys that run on electricity. These jeepneys of the future will help to ensure that the streets of the Philippines will never be drab, even after the oil runs out.

2. Customized Vans (U.S.A.)

Does anything say “The Seventies” quite like a customized boogie van? Although they first came to prominence among hippies and surfers in the Sixties, custom vans really came into their cheesy own after 1970. Inside, they were mobile living room masterpieces of shag carpeting, strobe lights and if you were really lucky, a mini-fridge full of cold brews and panty peeler. Outside, they were low culture tributes to the heroes of the day. Every sci-fi and fantasy character from Conan to C3PO was immortalized in air-brushed glory for all to see. Custom van culture combined the free-wheeling nomadism of the Sixties with the do-anything-to-feel-good hedonism of the Seventies. Moving fortresses of comfort, they cruised the streets and beaches, bringing all the comforts of home anywhere there was pavement. All that and they had wicked pictures of barbarians kicking major ass.

1. Custom Rickshaws (India)

The only human-powered vehicles on the list, the custom rickshaws of India prove that just because your vehicle doesn’t have an engine, doesn’t mean you can’t trick it out. Although their use has largely faded in other parts of the world, rickshaws remain a common form of transportation in many cities in India and Bangladesh. Used as a cheap way to get around, rickshaws are an integral part of the transportation system. But what makes them great is the art. Covered in oil paintings that depict everything from movie stars to products to political commentary, they reflect the owner’s opinions and feelings while giving other people on the road something very cool to look at. In the past, elites looked down on the paintings as gauche examples of low-class culture, but recently artists and scholars have started to take them seriously as an art form. All this, and they’re environmentally friendly!

By Geoff Shakespeare

Ethology is the term used for the study of animal behavior. Strange animal behaviors can be genetically determined or learned behaviors and I have included some of both. Either way, whether learned or instinctive, these behaviors don’t change the fact that some animal behavior is just… strange. Here is my top 10:

10. Naked Mole Rats

The Queen Gets Pushy And Runs In (Backwards) To 10

Most commonly known as naked mole rats (also called the desert mole rat and sand puppy), they are neither moles nor rats but a type of guinea pig. They are ugly animals, often described as resembling a bloated bratwurst with teeth. The behavior they exhibit, in all its hilarity, is their ability to run as fast backwards as they can forwards, in the dark and completely blind. Even stranger, the queen mole rat is the only one to breed and bear young, similar to the queen bee. In order to secure her exclusivity to mate she will push around other female mole rats in order to cause them stress. This releases hormones that make them unable to procreate.

9. The Bowerbird

Interior Decorator at Heart

For all those anal-retentive interior designers the Bowerbird enjoys decorating too. Not only does the Bowerbird make great efforts to adorn his nest, he even goes so far as to destroy the nests of his neighbors. In an effort to attract a mate, the male Bowerbird builds what are termed, ‘bowers.’ The Bowerbird is a meticulous decorator and will use flowers, feathers, stones and bits of discarded plastic and glass to decorate his ‘bachelor pad’ in the hopes of impressing a female. The Bowerbird will even decorate using one particular color. He will focus on decorating for hours and only break his concentration when he goes to another bird’s home to steal or vandalize.

8. Cuckoo Birds

Shirking Parental Duties

Another strange bird behavior is that of the Cuckoo bird. Cuckoo birds have a rather interesting approach to parenting in that they lay their eggs in another bird’s nest for other birds to take care of . The Cuckoo bird is solitary and will lay or drop its eggs into the nest of another bird once she’s observed that the other birds have stepped out momentarily. She will then quickly lay her eggs or transfers them there. Each breeding season she will find new places to deposit her eggs and once her baby bird (or babies) hatch, she will attempt to drop the foster parent’s eggs out of the nest to secure her own babies’ survival. Time to call social services.

7. The Female Brown Trout

Ever fake an orgasm? She Knows All About It
The next time you ladies think you are the only animals in the animal kingdom to fake an orgasm, think again. The Female brown trout fakes orgasms to encourage males to ejaculate prematurely. By faking the orgasm, the female trout deceives the male into thinking he’s mated successfully when in fact he has failed. Maybe not the strangest behavior for humans, but when you consider first that fish have orgasms, and second that they can fake them, this fish swims up the ranks of strange behavior to number 7.

6. Zebra Finches

He May Not Be Perfect, But He’s All Mine

Next in line on the list of strange animal behaviors is the Zebra Finch at number 6. Most female birds lay smaller eggs when their mate is unattractive; however, the Zebra Finch does the complete opposite. She lays a larger egg to give her little ugly finch-ling the best start in life possible (more nutrients, more room to grow) despite the father’s shortcomings.

5. Adelie Penguins

A Rock and Roll Romance

The Adelie Penguin’s mating ritual is strange but endearing. When choosing a mate the male penguin rolls a stone to the feet of the female to make it clear that the engagement has been offered. The match only melds once the female has given her approval and responds with a belly-to-belly mating song. They even go a long way from the pack to mate in private making them a strange romantic breed at number 5.

4. Horned Lizards

Giving a Whole New Meaning To The Word ‘Bloodshot’

Horned Lizards have a rather strange and intimidating defensive reaction against their enemies. They shoot an aimed stream of blood from out of their eyes by voluntarily increasing the blood pressure in their sinuses until they explode. This stream of blood can reach distances of up to 5 feet. The blood has no poison, it merely creates chaos and confusion to the attacker. The blood does taste foul to canine and feline predators but it has no effect on bird predators. In honor of the Horned Lizard’s gruesome defense, it earns number 4.

3. Elephants

Stoic Over Death, Elephants Grieve and Bury their Dead

The strangest emotionally driven animal behavior is exhibited by elephants. Elephants have a few rituals in regards to death and dying. When they come across elephant bones, for example, they seem to be able to indentify that the bones are of other elephants. They will spend a great deal of time investigating the bones in a very subdued and quiet manner. Often elephants will visit elephant gravesites regularly. They will stay close beside a deceased elephant from their herd for some time, withstanding hunger and thirst before leaving for food or water. Elephants will take leaves, dirt, and branches and cover other elephants after they die. It has also been observed that elephants will do the same for humans and other empathetic animals like dogs. The evidence attests to the fact that elephants are extremely empathetic animals and for that they deserve to be near the top of the list at number 3.

2. Dung Beetles

Dung Beetles Love their Dung in More Ways than One

The Dung Beetle rolls in, appropriately, at number 2. And, they don’t call it a Dung Beetle for nothing. Dung Beetles are part of the Scarab family: they live and eat and breed in dung. Dung, in case the term escapes you, is excrement (manure, feces…) and the Dung Beetle loves it. The Dung Beetle lives in dung, eats dung, lays its eggs in dung, hatches its offspring in dung, and then finally feeds dung to its young. To top it all off with the greatest of all dung deeds, the Dung Beetle rolls balls of dung long distances while standing on its head and moving backwards using its hind legs to push it around. Of all Egyptian symbols, the Scarab beetle was the most important religious symbol. The myth of the Egyptians was that Khepera, the scarab god of the sun, rolled the sun across the heavens and buried it in the evening much like the famed and appropriately termed Dung Beetle does with his little ball of dung!

1. Flatworms

Love and War… and Penis Fencing

Absolutely by far the strangest and most outrageous of animal behaviors is exhibited by Flatworms who inch in at number one. Flatworms actually engage in what is called ‘penis fencing’, an act of battle meant to secure a mate. Love and War, baby. Flatworms are ‘hermaphrodites’ which means they can inseminate and be inseminated. Some species have two penises and one or more genital pores for the process of reproduction. Flatworms meet and penis fence in order to determine who will be the female and who will be the male. Both worms want to be male because the female role is much more difficult as it takes more energy and sacrifice to develop eggs and raise young. Even worms know this! Okay, not really, but nature knows it and Flatworms fight it out to the finish with the one that pierces the skin of the other winning out the hideous affair.

By Natalie Jaro

Not everyone wants to watch a football game (especially with the Detroit Lions as one of the teams playing) on Thanksgiving and with that in mind I offer up these top 10 movies to watch on Thanksgiving. Most will be shown on your local cable or network channels but some may require a trip to the DVD rental store. Also, if you don’t feel like going out on Black Friday you may wish to settle in and watch one of these Thanksgiving movies.

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (1987)

All that Neal Page wants to do is to get home for Thanksgiving. His flight has been cancelled due to bad weather, so he decides on other means of transport. As well as bad luck, Neal is blessed with the presence of Del Griffith, Shower Curtain Ring Salesman and all-around blabbermouth, who is never short of advice, conversation, bad jokes, or company. And when he decides that he is going the same direction as Neal…. Written by Murray Chapman {muzzle@cs.uq.oz.au}

Home for the Holidays (1995)

After losing her job, making out with her soon to be ex-boss, and finding out that her daughter plans to spend Thanksgiving with her boyfriend, Claudia Larson has to face spending the holiday with her family. She wonders if she can survive their crazy antics. Written by Cyndi Kessler {ckessler@ix.netcom.com}

Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (1971)

The world is astounded when Willy Wonka, for years a recluse in his factory, announces that five lucky people will be given a tour of the factory, shown all the secrets of his amazing candy, and one will win a lifetime supply of Wonka chocolate. Nobody wants the prize more than young Charlie, but as his family is so poor that buying even one bar of chocolate is a treat, buying enough bars to find one of the five golden tickets is unlikely in the extreme. Charlie, along with four somewhat odious other children, get the chance of a lifetime and a tour of the factory. Along the way, mild disasters befall each of the odious children, but can Charlie beat the odds and grab the brass ring? Written by Rick Munoz {rick.munoz@his.com}

Pieces of April (2003)

In a very poor zone of New York, April Burns and her boyfriend, the Afro-American Bobby, are preparing to receive April’s family for a thanksgiving dinner. While Bobby tries to borrow a suit for him, April realizes that her stove is broken and she tries desperately to find a neighbor that can let her cook the turkey, since she does not want to fail (again) with her family. Meanwhile, in a suburb of Pennsylvania, her dysfunctional family is preparing to travel to New York. Written by Claudio Carvalho, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Tadpole (2002)

Beautiful, sophisticated women are all over Oscar Grubman. He is sensitive and compassionate, speaks French fluently, is passionate about Voltaire, and thinks the feature that tells the most about a woman is her hands. On the train home from Chauncey Academy for the Thanksgiving weekend, Oscar confides in his best friend that he has plans for this vacation–he will win the heart of his true love. But there is one major problem–Oscar’s true love is his stepmother Eve. Oscar is certain that he could be a better mate to Eve than his work-obsessed father. He fails to win Eve’s heart and is consequently dejected. Oscar’s path to his true love is further crossed by Diane, Eve’s best friend who, one night while wearing Eve’s borrowed perfumed scarf, offers him temporary comfort in an unconventional tryst. For Diane, Oscar fills a void in her life. For Oscar, Diane is somewhat of a distraction, as his continued pursuit of Eve leads to an unexpected resolution. Written by Sujit R. Varma

Hannah and Her Sisters (1986)

During a Thanksgiving Day party we make aquaintance with a numerous and problematic family. The leading characters are three sisters: Lee, the woman of Frederick, an old misanthrope painter; Holly, who dreams of becoming a writer, or an actress, or who knows who…; Hannah, famous actress, beautiful, intelligent, good mother, good wife, good sister, in short perfect, the pivot of the family. The balance begins to break up when Hannah’s husband, Elliot, falls in love with Lee, who leaves Frederick. Holly goes through a deep crisis and meets Mickey, the former husband of Hannah, a hipocondriac TV producer. The affairs evolve and at the last Thanksgiving … Written by Maurizio Semolic {semolic@oat.ts.astro.it}

Home Alone (1990)

I realize this is movie depicting events around Christmas but it shows every Thanksgiving and is a part of that holiday by association. – ed.

Kevin McAllister, 8 years old is accidentally left behind while his family rushes to the Airport to go to France for their Christmas vacation. Kevin learns that he made his family is gone. He spends his first day having fun in his house. Kevin learns that Mav and Harry (The Wet Bandits), two crooks are trying to rob his house. Kevin fends for himself and protects his house from the thieves, by setting traps everywhere. Meanwhile, Kevin’s mother discovers that they left Kevin in Chicago and tries to go back to Chicago while the other members of the family stay in Fance. Written by Inhotenjoys

Grumpy Old Men (1993)

John and Max are two former friends turned enemies and have been feuding for a long time, we don’t really know why at the beginning of the film. When they see a new neighbor moving in on the street, a very attractive older woman named Ariel. Now the boys have something new to fight over and are competing for her love. But it almost drives them crazy how much they keep playing tricks on each other and can they realize that it’s finally time to grow up and act their ages or will they stay as grumpy old men? Written by Kristine

What’s Cooking (2000)

In LA’s Fairfax district, where ethnic groups abound, four households celebrate Thanksgiving amidst family tensions. In the Nguyen family, the children’s acculturation and immigrant parents’ fears collide. In the Avila family, Isabel’s son has invited her estranged husband to their family dinner. Audrey and Ron Williams want to keep their own family’s ruptures secret from Ron’s visiting mother. In the Seelig household, Herb and Ruth are unwilling to discuss openly their grown daughter’s living with her lover, Carla. Around each table, things come to a head. A gun, an affair, a boyfriend, and a pregnancy precipitate crises forcing each family to find its center. Written by {jhailey@hotmail.com}

Charlie Brown Thanksgiving (1973)

No other city in the world has the cinematic history of New York. Long a favorite of filmmakers interested in exploring city life, it can become a reflection of whatever they perceive it or the world at large to be. At times, New York is portrayed as a magical place of bustle, commerce, and unlimited potential. Movies like Big or The Secret of My Success take place in a New York that asks for nothing but hard work and ingenuity from its citizens. A place where the best features of capitalism and modern life begin, grow, and prosper.

But for other, less optimistic, filmmakers, New York is a giant concrete and glass symbol of everything wrong with the world and society. A festering sore of evil and suffering that can only be endured for so long before it swallows you whole. These are the Top Ten Nightmare Visions of New York.

10. The Warriors

The quintessential urban hellscape, The New York of the 1979 cult classic The Warriors is a city so riddled with street gangs that they can hold a general meeting in one of the biggest parks in the city with little fear of reprisal. They even seem to have their own radio station. The gangs are so emboldened that their leader suggests they actually take over the city entirely as they outnumber the police 3 to 1. When he is killed, the Warriors of the title are forced to flee back to their home turf in Coney Island. The city they cross is dirty and filled with garbage, human and otherwise. As they dodge blood-thirsty gang after blood-thirsty gang, their numbers are slowly diminished. The New York of The Warriors is so brutal that even a hardened bunch of street fighters can barely survive one of its nights. But it isn’t all horrible. Even though the streets are crawling with murderous thugs, at least they go to the trouble of coming up with interesting themes and wearing colorful costumes. It makes getting the living snot beat out of you just a little more pleasant.

9. Gotham City (Batman)

Although DC comics calls it Gotham City, there’s no mistaking which city it is that Batman’s patrolling. Longtime Batman writer Dennis O’Neal said Gotham City is “…Manhattan below Fourteenth Street at eleven minutes past midnight on the coldest night in November.” As a New York stand in, Gotham City embodies all of its doppleganger’s worse qualities. It’s dark, filthy, overcrowded, and full to bursting with every kind of scumbag and criminal imaginable. The police are corrupt, organized crime runs the streets, and the one mental institution in town is about as difficult to escape from as an awkward conversation. Things are so bad in the city that even the idle rich feel they have to put on a mask and chip in. The worst thing about Gothan City is that even though they have one of the greatest superheroes ever created on 24hr call, nothing ever gets better. No matter how many punks, thugs, or freaks Batman puts away, there are always about a hundred more on the next block. If that isn’t the definition of a nightmare, what is?

8. Barney Miller

Barney Miller? How could a fun-loving, charming sitcom from the Seventies make the list? You’re right. For the most part, Barney Miller presented a calm peaceful world where everyone cared about each other and always had something funny to say. They weren’t supercops, but they did their jobs well and tried to make a difference. Everything was right in the world. As long as you stayed in the station. The outside world (New York) was presented as an almost mythically awful place. Often spoken about but never rarely seen, the characters of Barney Miller accepted it as fact that once you left the safety of the 12^th precinct, all bets were off. Even the character’s homes were fortresses of barred windows and heavily locked doors. The reason New York is so scary in Barney Miller is that its corruption and decay are so pervasive that the main characters don’t even question it. Things have gotten so bad in the city that even the cops have given up. They were all painfully aware that they lived in an urban hellhole and there wasn’t a thing they could do about it. Is it any wonder they spent most of their time sitting around the station drinking coffee and cracking jokes?

7. Death Wish

The New York in Death Wish shares a lot of features with the one in The Warriors. Basically, it’s a stinking pile of human misery. Punks wander the streets robbing and killing whenever they like and good, wholesome folks cower in their apartments behind doors filled with locks. The only difference between this decayed New York and any of the others on the list is here, somebody has had enough. Unfortunately for all the thugs and lowlifes, that somebody is Charles ‘Effing Bronson. Once his wife and daughter are brutally assaulted and left for dead, Bronson takes to the streets with a really big gun and starts plugging any criminal unlucky enough to run into him. The New York depicted is so bad, so beyond hope, that the only solution to its crime problems is a tough guy on a mass murder spree. What’s most shocking is how much audiences identified with the movie. It played right into the fears of urban decay and rising crime that city dwellers felt were swallowing them whole. Death Wish was so successful because it took a real fear and turned it up to paranoid delusion. Just like a nightmare.

6. Bringing Out The Dead

Most of the terrifying visions of New York are external. Crime out of control, streets unsafe for any but the most savage. They play on the idea that everyone in New York is a predator just waiting for a moment to leap at you and tear out your throat. Martin Scorsese’s underrated 1999 flick Bringing Out The Dead takes a different, yet just as nightmarish look at the Big Apple. Instead of a city of heartless crooks and killers, the New York of Bring Out The Dead is filled with the sick and dying. Everyone in the film is suffering from one thing or another. From the crazy people paramedic Nicholas Cage treats every night to the scores of drug addicts in the streets, hospitals and apartments. Set in the last gasps of the pre-Gulianni New York of legend, the movie presents a city so sick, so close to death, that the only thing its poor residents can do is medicate themselves into oblivion. Even Cage’s paramedic, who’s meant to fix all these broken souls, can’t make it ten minutes without a drink or a pill. Bringing Out The Dead is the cinematic equivalent of watching somebody slowly succumb to a killer disease. Maybe that’s why nobody likes it.

5. Grand Theft Auto

Though later editions were to visit other corners of the game’s twisted vision of America, Grand Theft Auto has never been better than when it takes place in its fictional New York, Liberty City. And what a New York it is. More of a Wild West frontier town than major metropolitan center, Liberty City is a mess of rival gangs, flagrant disregard for law enforcement, and violence so commonplace that most citizens don’t even notice it. If he were so inclined, a resident of Liberty City could wake up, thrown on some clothes, and spend his day savagely beating prostitutes with baseball bats, destroying several cars in the middle of a busy thoroughfare, and randomly shooting passers by, all before he has his morning coffee. Nobody cares. Worst of all, the Liberty City police have the attention span of a distracted 4 year old. No matter how bad the crime, no matter how bloody the carnage, no matter how high the body count, if they can’t catch the guy who did it in the first three minutes, they give up. The residents of Liberty City are like a dysfunctional family scared of their drunk Dad. Everybody plays dumb and looks the other way while one guy indulges every sick, violent fantasy he can dream up. Not a city you want to put on your next vacation short list.

4. Escape From New York

The 1981 sci-fi classic Escape from New York presents the ultimate expression of the fear that New York was one mugging away from total anarchy. Set in the impossibly far-flung future of 1997, Escape from New York shows a city where the gangs of The Warriors have completed their mission of taking over the city. Oh, they had some help. Fed up with rampant crime and under the sway of old school tough guys like Lee Van Cleef, America has washed its hands of both the crime problem and New York in general by turning Manhattan into a giant open air prison. The bridges and tunnels are blocked or destroyed and once you go in, you never come out. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be any food delivery, power, or any other basic services. That, coupled with the psychotic cannibals who wander the streets at night and the vicious warlord who runs the place, makes it not a very nice place to live. It’s the ultimate nightmare scenario. The entire city has been swallowed by evil and all the Charles Bronsons in the world can’t bring it back.

3. Gangs of New York

Far removed from the concrete jungles of the Twentieth Century, Scorsese’s Gangs of New York presents a young New York, free from the decay and rot that characterizes the portrayals of its later years. This is a new city in a new nation, poised to become one of the greatest places in the history of mankind. Unfortunately, nobody told the street gangs. They may have elaborate themes and costumes, but they’re just as tough. The movie opens and closes with basically a medieval battle scene, albeit one in the middle of a city street. Forget the odd mugging or OD, in this New York, your morning commute is more likely to be interrupted by a thousand men beating each other to death with clubs and knives. Besides the monumental battles, everyone is filthy, and the whole city is run by murderous thugs. We get a small glimpse into the wealthy, beautiful side of things, but then only as a place to steal from. The New York of Gangs of New York is nasty, brutish and short. And most nightmarishly of all, it actually existed.

2. The Lost Weekend

With its clean streets, pretty young girls, and gentlemen in suits, the New York of The Lost Weekend is practically a paradise compared to some of the other urban disasters on this list. The city looks bright, welcoming, and there’s nary a knife wielding thug in sight. The only real problem for the main character Don is his hopeless addiction to whiskey. Broke and without a friend in the world, Don descends into a swirling vortex of booze and despair. Then the real, nasty New York shows its ugly face. Streets that were once filled with smiling young professionals and welcoming diners are transformed into dark, lurid alleys filled with fellow barflies and drinking pits. The Lost Weekend actually pioneered the famous shot of a guy walking down a street with neon bar signs tempting him. It presents New York as a two-faced city. Energetic and industrious by day, but drunk and pathetic by night. Just like the alcoholic in the story.

1. Planet of the Apes

Although it isn’t revealed until the famous last shot, the monkey controlled, human hating Planet of The Apes is none other than New York herself. Sure, it’s several years after a nuclear war has devastated human civilization and allowed a surly bunch of chimps, orangutans, and gorillas to take over and enslave the remaining humans, and sure, it looks a lot like a studio backlot in Southern California, but it’s still New York. Instead of roving gangs of thugs in leather jackets, we get roving gangs of Gorilla soldiers in leather jackets. Instead of a frightened and terrorized population of sophisticated urbanites, we get a frightened and terrorized population of scantily clad primitives. And just like all the best New York movies, we get one dude (Charleton Heston in all his scenery eating glory) who’s had it up to here with the garbage and god damn it, he’s going to do something about it. The only difference (well, besides the fact that he’s wearing animal skins) is he kills a lot of apes instead of a lot of criminals. And really, is that any real difference at all?

Google is amazing (please thank me for this amazing revelation). There are some things you probably didn’t know Google can do. Take your time and read the information below. You’ll likely learn a few tips and tricks that will make you appreciate Google even more.

10. Find a beautiful wallpaper for your desktop resolution with Google images

Here’s how you do it:

1. Go to Advanced Image Search
2. Next to “Exact size” click on “Use my desktop resolution”. Then, next to “Content types” select “Photo content.”
3. Enter some words. If you want to find cows, enter beautiful cows Let’s see the results:

Notice that many of the images in the results are from wallpaper sites. Google Images makes it very convenient to go through these types of sites and browse them like a gallery instead of going to each gallery site separately.

9. Create unlimited disposable email addresses with Gmail

Take the following example:

That’s right, you can add one or more dots ANYWHERE between your username and send messages to that ‘new’ email. All of those messages will arrive to your old (without dots) email. Hard to explain without a picture. But somehow Google did find a way to do it…

Yep, this is an explanation from Google itself. Now that you understand this, let’s keep going.

8. Search videos durations using Google Video

I’ve noticed there’s not a single video site that allows you to search videos by duration. Let’s say I want to learn Spanish and I want comprehensive videos for that (longer than 20 minutes.) To search, I go to Google Advanced Video Search page and select “Long” next to “Duration”. Here’s what happens:

Now all that’s left is to get some free time and watch those…

7. Want to find an iPad alternative using Google Search?

Sure, you can write ‘iPad alternative’ in Google but that won’t give you the best results. Instead, try this:

Using “better than product” where product=any product will give you not only alternatives but better alternatives to a particular product. Very cool.

6. Detect any unknown language with Google Language Detector

I have a big problem:

What’s the solution? Google language detector.

Another good way to detect and also translate is to use Google Translate and the “Detect Language” option:

5. See what the Dutch haven been searching for recently using Google Insights

Google is the most popular search engine in almost any country in the world. Google Insights (like the name suggests) gives you ‘insights’ of what people have been searching for around the world. For example, Netherlands:

Hyves is a Dutch portal and social network. Weer seems to be a weather portal.

4. When did Google become more popular than Microsoft? Google Trends has the answer

Google Trends helps you discover the trends on various topics and see what people have been searching for over time. In this case, you can see when people started searching for Google more than Microsoft in early 2005.

3. Hate opening PDF files? Google Docs is the solution

So you’ve been searching on Google for a particular topic and found a PDF file:

Instead of opening the file in Adobe Reader (which is a painful process), you can click on “Quick View” and open the file in Google Docs! It takes seconds to open and it’s way more flexible. If you choose later, you can always save the file as PDF by choosing the export option in Google Docs.

2. Scan and Read your RSS feeds like email messages in Google Reader

You probably know how easy it is to open and read email messages in Gmail thanks to the list view. Well, you can do the same in Google Reader:

The default view in Google Reader is ‘expanded’ which makes the items pretty difficult to scan and read. If you change the view from expanded to ‘list’, then it becomes WAY easier to SCAN items and pick what you like.

1. Google can tell you the answer to life and the universe

I wish it was so simple

Written by Darren, the owner of Find People for Free – FinderMind , a website on people search help..